Today, Reps. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), Robert D. Andrews (D-N.J.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) stood up for U.S. servicewomen, and submitted an amendment to the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would end the unconscionable policy of denying rape survivors serving in the military health coverage for abortion care. The all-powerful House of Representatives Committee on Rules will decide this week whether this amendment — protecting the health and rights of U.S. servicewomen — deserves to get a vote.

Sexual assault in the armed services is at crisis levels. Tragically, we see storyafterstory of servicewomen being attacked by their own colleagues. In the fiscal year 2010, according to the Department of Defense, 3,158 military sexual assaults were reported, many of which were reports of rape. As DOD officials have stated, even “one sexual assault is one too many,” but the above number — which is in the thousands — barely scratches the surface. Most servicewomen who have experienced sexual violence do not report the incident. Researchers estimate that up to one-third of women experience an attempted or completed rape during their military service.

In the face of this epidemic, federal law denies servicewomen and military families coverage for abortion care, even in cases of rape or incest. By contrast, the federal bans on abortion coverage for women enrolled in Medicaid, disabled women enrolled in Medicare, federal employees (other than members of the armed services), women who receive health care through the Indian Health Service, and women in federal prisons, all include exceptions for rape survivors. (The only other coverage restriction that doesn’t include a rape exception is the ban on abortion coverage for another group of women serving our country — those in the Peace Corps.) Even extreme and unprecedented anti-choice bills pending in Congress include exceptions for rape and incest.

Every woman should have the health care coverage she needs, regardless of how she pays for it. At the very least our military women deserve the same access to care as all of the other women who get their health insurance through the federal government.

As Undersecretary of Defense Clifford Stanley stated, “the American public should rightfully expect that when their…daughters raise their right hand to serve our great nation, they do so in a culture and environment where dignity, respect and protection prevail.”

U.S. servicewomen put their lives on the line for us every day. We owe it to them to fight for their dignity and respect their choices. Thank you Reps. Davis, Andrews, DeGette, Maloney, Sanchez and Slaughter for acting to correct this injustice.

This week, the New York Times published an article hand-wringing over declining fertility rates in America, which it blames over in part on access to birth control. Here’s the problem: it included a parenthetical falsely suggesting that using emergency contraception, like Plan B, causes abortion. Spoiler alert — it doesn’t.

For years, conservatives have baselessly claimed that emergency contraception causes abortions, often to fuel attacks on contraceptive access. When Plan B and other emergency contraceptives were first approved for sale in 1999, scientists didn’t fully understand how it worked. Anti-choice activists exploited that uncertainty, saying that emergency contraception prevents fertilized eggs from implanting in a ...

This week, the New York Times published an article hand-wringing over declining fertility rates in America, which it blames over in part on access to birth control. Here’s the problem: it included ...

After months of doing everything in its power to prevent several undocumented women from accessing abortion, news has broken that Trump’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) discussed “reversing” a young woman’s abortion using a procedure unsupported by science. The driving force behind the administration’s torture of traumatized young refugees seeking necessary reproductive care? Scott Lloyd, ORR director.

Lloyd oversees detained unaccompanied minors, yet has no experience in refugee resettlement and has a long history of promoting anti-woman rhetoric. He is clearly in this position because his anti-immigrant and anti-abortion agenda aligns with Trump.

Abortion “reversal” is not supported by science or the medical community. Anti-abortion extremists’ “reversal” procedure involves injecting the hormone progesterone into the pregnant person ...

After months of doing everything in its power to prevent several undocumented women from accessing abortion, news has broken that Trump’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) discussed “reversing” a young woman’s abortion using a procedure ...

We have a lot to celebrate today—but forty five years later, we’re still fighting to expand abortion access and protect reproductive freedom from right-wing attacks. Here’s some of our favorite writing on the site about abortion and reproductive justice.

Awful stories of unsafe pre-Roe abortions are a powerful reminder of the truth — a verifiable reality, despite the anti-choice movement’s instance otherwise — that, regardless of its legality, people will go ...

Hell yes: it’s Roe’s 45th anniversary, baby!

We have a lot to celebrate today—but forty five years later, we’re still fighting to expand abortion access and protect reproductive freedom ...

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